Music supplement to Lute News 71 (September 2004): Manuscript Sources of Music Associated with Thomas Robinson

Inventory and worklist of The Schoole of Musicke [roman numerals indicate items reproduced here]

sig. Aii^r Dedication¹²

Aii^v ‘To the Reader’

Bi^r-Cii^v Instructions^[1]

1a. D1^r T/He Queenes/ good Night. [treble]

1b. D1^r Heere followeth the Ground. [ground]

2a. D1^v T/Wenty waies/ vpon the bels [treble]

2b. D1^v Heere followeth the ground. [ground]

3. D2^r R/Ow well you Marriners./ Heere keepe

your fore-finger/ along in r , ^[2]

4. D2^v A/ Galliard.

5. E1^r A/ Galliard.^[3]

6a. E1^v A/ Plaine song for two Lutes. [lute I]

6b. E2^r A/ Plaine song for two/ Lutes. [lute II]

7. E2^v G/Risse his delight.^[4]

8a. F1^r PAssemezo galyard. [treble on p.a.]

8b. F1^r Heere followeth the ground/ to this Treble. [ground]

9a. F1^v xiii a. A/ Fantasie for two Lutes. All in Vnisons. [I]

9b. F2^r xiii b. A/ Fantasie for two Lutes. All in Vnisons. [II]

xiii c. cf. Mertel 1615, p. 36: Praeludium 80; D-B 4022, f. 43r iii untitled; PL-Kj 40641, ff. 4v-5r fantazia

10a.F2^v xiv a. A/ Toy for two Lutes. [I]

10b.G1^r xiv b. A/ Toy for two Lutes. [II]

xiv c. Sampson, f. 12^v: bo peep/ an allmaine for 2 lutes [II]

11. G1^v A/GALLIARD.

12. G2^r M/Erry Melancholie.

13. G2^v R/Obinsons Riddle. cf. Robinson 1609, sig. G1^v, Robinsons Riddle [cittern]

14. H1^r i a. G/Oe from my/ Window.

i b. Dd.5.78.3, f. 40^v: T.R.

15. H1^v v a. A/ TOY.

v b. Dd.5.78.3, f. 11^r ii: untitled

v c. Danzig 4022, f. 26^v: untitled

v d. Leipzig II.6.15, p. 505: Englische Toy

v e. Ballet, p. 100: Robinsons Toye

v f. Nauclerus, f. 28^r, Chorea Anglica

cf. Dd.4.23, f. 21^v: T R [cittern]

16. Hii^r A/ GIGVE. cf. Robinson 1609, sigs. I4^v-K1^v: For two Citharens [cittern duet]; Ridout, f. 71v: The sheeips skins 16 [cittern]^[5]

17. Hii^v iiia. A/N ALMAIGNE. cf. Robinson 1609, sig. F2^v: An Almaine [cittern]^[6]

iiib. Thysius, f. 487^v, Robinsons Allemande

18. Ii^r A/N ALMAIGNE. cf. Robinson 1609, sig. H2^r: Whetelies wheat sheafe [cittern]

19. Ii^v A/ TOY.

20. Iii^r iv a. A TOY.

iv b. Euing, f. 29^v: untitled^[7]

21. Iii^v R/Obin is to the greenwood gone.

22. Iii^v A/ TOY. cf. Robinson 1609, sig. G2^r: Shepheard shoot home [cittern]

23. Ki^r T/He Queenes Gigue.

24. Ki^v-Kii^r V/T Re Mi Fa Sol La/ 9 sundry waies: for one/ Lute.

25. Kii^v-Li^r M/Y Lord Willobies/ welcome home.

26. Li^v-Lii^r B/ELL VEDERE. [medley of unidentified tunes]

27. Lii^v-M1^r T/He Spanish Pauin.

ii. = 3056, ff. 20^v-21^r: Tho Robins Spanish pau

28. Mi^v viii a. A/ GIGVE. cf. Ford 1607, no. 16, Cate of Bardie / The Queenes Iig (lyra viol duet); FVB, p. 379: Jigg / Giles Farnaby [kb]

viii b. Rowallan,^[8] p. 49: Katherine Bairdie

viii c. Balcarres, pp. 100-1: Kattie bairdie John m^claughlans way by m^r beck

[D minor, baroque tuning]

cf. pp. 120 Cuttie spoon and tree ladle m^r macklaughlans way by m^r beck

viii d. Skene, pp. 21-2: Kette Bardie [mandora]

keyboard: F-Pn Rés.1186, f. 46v A Scottish Jigg; NYp Drexel 5609, p. 130 A Scottish Jigg

29. Mi^v A Gigue

30. Mii^r vii a. W/Alking in a country towne.^[9]

vii b. autogr. Hove 1, f. 161^r: Pekelhavier/

Masquarade

vii c. Valerius 1626, pp. 222-3: Stem: Pots handert duysent flapperment [index: Nederlandsche stemmen: Almande Peckelharing; and Almanden: Peckelharing, of: Pots hendert]^[10]

31. Mii^r ix a. Bony sweet boy.

ix b. Dd.2.11, f. 66^r: Bonny sweet Boy

ix c. Dd.9.33, f. 82^r: Bony sweet/ boy [bandora]

32. Mii^v A/ GIGVE.

33. Mii^v x a. LANTERO

x b. Nn.6.36, f. 3^r, Lantiero

x c. Dd.5.78.3, f. 44^v: The Bowres Daunce ^[11]

x d. Nn.6.36, f. 3^r: The Boores Dawnce

cf. 23623, f. 9^r: Boeren Dans van Jan Bull Docti [kb]

xi a. Dd.9.33, f. 92^r: Robinsons May ^[12]

= Dd.9.33, f. 87^v i: [untitled]

Cromwell, p. 3: Mrs Villiers Sport: [kb]

xi b. Dallis, p. 77: the hay

xii a. Mynshall, f. 7^r: A Allman

xii b. Dd.9.33, f. 87^v ii: untitled

34. Mii^v T/Hree parts in one vpon/ an old ground.

Nir-Oiiv ‘Rules to instruct you to Sing’.

35. Oii^r vi a. S/Weet IESU who shall lend mee wings.

vi b. Browne, f. 58^v: Sweet Jesu whoo shalt lende

mee whings a Thomas Robinson [bandora]^[13]

36. Oii^r A/ Psalme. [on La Folia], cf. Robinson 1609, sig. G3^r, A Psalme [cittern]; 29485 (van Soldt), f. 18r: tobyas om sterven gheneghen [kb]

37. Oii^v O/ Lord of whom I doe/ depend. cf. Robinson 1609, sig. E4^r, A Psalme [cittern, Ps 25]

38. Oii^v O/ Lord that art my/ righteousnesse. cf. Robinson 1609, sig. E1^r: A Psalme [cittern, Ps 4]

As my namesake, it is very agreeable to add Thomas Robinson to the list of English composers included in tablature supplements. He published two music prints, The Schoole of Musicke for one or two lutes in 1603^[14] and New Cytharen Lessons for four and fourteen course cittern in 1609 (see title pages on p. 7).^[15] Medulla Musicke, a third print, of intabulations and arrangements for voices was entered in the registers of the Stationer’s Company in 1603, but there is doubt whether it was ever published as no copy is known.^[16] However, he may have been referring to Medulla Musicke when in The Schoole of Musicke he tells us that ‘your fauourable acceptance of my first fruits from idlenesse, hath eccited mee further to congratulate your Musicall endeauours.’ Robinson’s main claim to fame is for publishing the first truly English instructions for the lute included in The Schoole of Musicke. The chief innovations appear to be the use of the thumb only instead of alternating right thumb and first finger in running bass passages and the use of the right middle finger in melodic passages on the top courses. His duets for lutes in unison are very popular today,^[17] but the lute solos from The Schoole of Musicke, ‘all mine own setting, and the most of them, mine owne inuention’,^[18] have not reached the same level of popularity and only one CD includes a selection of them to my knowledge.^[19] So it will probably surprise readers to discover that a significant proportion of his music found its way into English and Continental manuscripts.

This supplement collects together all the music for lute, bandora and mandora known to me that is concordant with items in The Schoole of Musicke, as well as cognate versions of the less well known popular tunes that he set.^[20] In addition, one lute solo titled ‘Robinsons May’ but not found in The Schoole of Musicke (my no. xia) and another is likely to be by him (no. xii),^[21] both related to an item included in The Schoole of Musicke (no. x). All versions are included when they are quite different including two quite different versions of ‘Go from my window’, but the manuscript version of the Spanish Pavan (no. ii) is nearly identical to the version in The Schoole of Musicke so only one is reproduced. The prelude from Mertel is included because it opens with the tune used by Robinson for his Fantasie duet (no. xiii). Although the link is now impossible to deduce, it is interesting that the prelude continues in a style similar to fantasias by Gregory Howet.

All the biographical information about Thomas Robinson, apart from one reference,^[22] is found in his prints.^[23] He seems to have spent some time abroad. He claims that he taught Frederick II, King of Denmark’s daughter Anne in Elsinore in Denmark^[24] (although he is not recorded in the Danish court records), presumably prior to her marriage in 1589 to the future James I of England, to whom Robinson dedicated The Schoole of Musicke.^[25] Also his most popular ‘Toy’ (no. v) is found in three continental manuscripts and his ‘Walking in a country towne’ is one of two tunes known on the continent as ‘Pickle Herring’ (no. vii), the stage name of the actor Robert Reynolds.^[26] The dedication to the New Cytharen Lessons,^[27] informs us that he was in the service of ‘Thomas Earle of Exceter’, who must be Thomas Cecil (1542-1623), 2nd Lord Burghley from 1598 and created 1st Earl of Exeter in 1605, eldest son of William Cecil, Lord Burghley. Also it appears that Thomas Robinson’s father, presumably a musician himself, was in the service of William Cecil, Viscount Cranbourne (son of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury), as well as his grandfather, William Cecil, Lord Burghley.

John H Robinson, Newcastle University, September 2004

Editorial footnote to nos. viia-c: Charles Baskerville The Elizabethan Jig (Chicago 1929/ Dover Books 1965) prints an early 17th century German ballad comedy, Der Betrogene Freier, partly set to this tune under another title 'Pots hondet tausend slapferment'. Also, there are motic resemblances to the first melody from the Pickleherring ballad comedy Der Pferdekauf des Endelmannes from Englishen Comedien und Tregedien (Leipzig 1620), also printed in Baskerville: while the closing 'courante' from the same play has some motivic resemblance to the other Pickleherring tune surviving in tablature, transcribed by John Robinson in Lute News 51.

1. ‘The Schoole of Musicke, perfectly teaching the true fingering of the Lute, Pandora, Orpharion, and Violl de Gamba, Dialogue wise, betwixt a Knight, (who hath children to be taught) and Timotheus, that should teach them.’ See Ian Harwood, ‘Thomas Robinson’s Generall Rules’, The Lute Society Journal xx (1978), pp. 18-22, a comparison of and commentary on the rules from New Cytharen Lessons and The Schoole of Musicke. ↑

2. Ballad first licensed 1565/6; and in all editions of John Playford’s The Dancing Master (1651-1728), and Thomas D’Urfey’s Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy (1720-1729), see Simpson, pp. 618-9, ‘Row Well, Ye Marriners’; John M. Ward, ‘Music for A Handfull of Pleasant Delites’ JAMS x (1957), pp. 158-159. ↑

3. Note similarity to Daniel Bacheler’s To plead my faith, see Martin Long, Daniel Bacheler, Selected Works for Lute (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), no. 25. ↑

4. William Gris was a Stationer and librarian of Christ Church in Oxford, see Ian Harwood The Lute v (1963) p. 38. ↑

5. Keyboard cognates: 23623, ff. 17v-19v: Rose a Solis van Joan Bull Doctr:; FVB, pp. 262-263: Rosasolis 12 Giles Farnaby. ↑

6. The ballad ‘The widdowes solace’ is directed to be sung ‘To the tune of Robinsons Almaine’ in Thomas Deloney’s Garland of Good Will (1602 & 1631), see Simpson, pp. 611-612, ‘Robinsons Almain.’ ↑

7. Opening the same as: Basel F.IX.70, p. 291 Chorea Anglicana; Danzig 4022, f. 26v Englische Toy; Dd.9.33, f. 83v [untitled]; Königsberg, f. 57v [untitled]; Leipzig II.6.15, p. 369 Klapper Tantz; Leipzig II.6.15, p. 505 Englsche Toy; Montbuysson, f. 2v [untitled]; Nauclerus, f. 46v Tantz/ Proportio; Osborn 7, f. 89v The Queenes Pantophle; Westminster Abbey 105, f. 1r [untitled]. Cittern: Dd.4.23, 6v Mr phs toy. Keyboard: Eysbock, f. 31r En[g]lender dans; FVB, p. 37 Muscadin; FVB, p. 410 Muscadin Giles Farnaby; Lynar A1, pp. 268-270 Kempes moris mr Geilles Farnabi Backeler in de Musick. For violin: Playford 1651, p. 26 The Cherping of the Larke. Instrumental ensemble: Playford, Courtly Masking Ayres 1662, p/no. 206; Playford 1700, p. ?, The Lark; see Tablature supplement to Lute News 64 (December 2002), no. 4. [same as Muscadin, surveyed more thoroughly in Lute News and Lutezine 117 (April 2016)] ↑

8. Wayne Cripps (ed.), The Rowallan Manuscript: Edinburgh University Library, Laing III 487 (Fort Worth: Lyre Music, 1995), p. 7. Thanks to Stewart McCoy and Matthew Spring for copies of the Skene and Balcarres versions, respectively. ↑

9. See Simpson, pp. 739-40, ‘Walking in a Country Town.’ cf. lute cognates: D-B N479 (Grühenbühel), f. 5v untitled & 69v ein SOldaten ist vorhand[en]; cittern cognate: Holborne 1597, sig. D1v: The maydens of the Countrey [cittern]; and keyboard cognates: Paris 1185, pp. 344-7, The Ladies Daughter:; Zweibrücken, no. 134, Gutt nacht, gutte nacht ihr herrn. ↑

10. Valerius also includes parts for cittern and voice. ↑

11. Surveyed more thoroughly in Lute News and Lutezine 124 (December 2017)]. ↑

12. See Ian Harwood (ed.), Ten easy pieces for the lute (Cambridge: Gamut, 1962), no. 10. Lute cognates: Thysius, f. 410r boerendans; 40143, f. 92r Boerendans. ↑

13. See Lyle Nordstrom, The Bandora: Its Music and Sources (Warren, Michigan: Harmonie Park Press, 1992), p. 93. ↑

14. Copies in Cambridge, University Library (shelf mark: Syn.3.60.1), London, British Library (shelf mark: K.2.d.1), London, Royal College of Music. Facsimile edition: The English Experience: Its Record in Early Printed Books Published in Facsimile. Number 589 (Walter J. Johnson, Inc., Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, Ltd., Amsterdam/ Norwood, N.J., 1975). Modern edition: David Lumsden, Thomas Robinson: The Schoole of Musicke (1603) (Paris: C.N.R.S., 1971/R1976). Thank you to Jan Burgers for a copy of the critical notes and Denys Stephens for a copy and translation of the introduction. Thanks to Ian Harwood for proof reading the text. ↑

15. Copy in London, British Library (shelf mark: K.2.d.2). Facsimile edition: Doc Rossi (ed.) (Peacock Press, forthcoming).

    [Still not published in 2022] ↑

16. ‘On 15 Oct. 1603 Easte published ‘Medulla Musicke. Sucked out of the sappe of Two [of] the most famous Musitians that euer were in this land, namely Master Wylliam Byrd and Master Alfonso Ferabosco either of whom having made 40tie severall waies (without contention), shewing most rare and intricate skill in 2 partes in one vpon the playne songe “Miserere.” The which at the request of a friend is most plainly sett in severall distinct partes to be sunge (with moore ease and vnderstanding of the lesse skilfull), by Master Thomas Robinson,’ (Arber, Transcript of Stationers' Registers, iii. 247). All copies of this work seem to have disappeared, and its existence was only revealed by the publication of the entry in the Stationers' Registers,’ from Dictionary of National Biography. ↑

17. A modern tablature transcription of all six is in Stefan Lundgren (ed.), English duets for two renaissance lutes, vol. iv (München: Lundgren Musik-Edition, 1986), nos. 41-6. A facsimile of Robinson’s Fantasie for two lutes was also reproduced by Ireen Thomas in De Tabulatuur, the newsletter of the Dutch Lute Society, no. 76 (March 2004), pp. 20-1. ↑

18. Address to the reader in The Schoole of Musicke in 1603: ‘Right courteous Gentlemen, and gentle Readers, your fauourable acceptance of my first fruits from idlenesse, hath eccited mee further to congratulate your Musicall endeauours. And in my conceit, I can no way better fit your good and willing mindes, then in shewing you how you may very soone, and very perfectly instruct your selues to play (vpon your best beloued instrument) the Lute, also the Orpharion, Pandora, and Viol de Gamba, any lesson (if it bee not to trickified) at the first sight. But bee it as it bee may, you shall haue rules of reason, to ouer-rule vnreasonable odd Cratchets, giue-ing you to vnderstand, that what is beyond the true course of Nature, must needes bee without all compasse of Art; and withal, nothing out-runneth Nature but Follie : so much for that. Also (for example sake) I haue set some lessons of all sorts : whereof some being old, I was requested to set them new after my fashion, some new out of the fat, some neither very new, nor very old, but yet all mine own setting, and the most of them, mine owne inuention. But Gentlemen, once more I will make you promise, that if these Mas-terlike rules, and Scholerlike lessons, doe but any whit content you. I will come forth, With Cracke mee this Nut, (I meane) onely lessons for one, two, and three Lutes [there is no music for three lutes?], and some with ditties, wherein I will striue either (for euer) to winne your fauours, or starue in the dole of your disgrace. [Vale] More for you, than for him-selfe, Thomas Robinson.’ ↑

19. Early Music: Antony Holborne : Thomas Robinson : Pavans and Galliards, Christopher Wilson, Lute Solo and Shirley Rumsey, Lute Duettist (NAXOS 8.55874, 1998); the CD includes recordings of my inventory nos. 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 14, 16, 19, 31. ↑

20. Some but not all first listed by David Lumsden in his CNRS edition, see footnote 1, and then by John M. Ward ‘A Dowland Miscellany’, Appendix O: Thomas Robinson, Journal of the Lute Society of America x (1978), pp. 119-23. For concordances and cognates for the more popular items, The Queens Goodnight (no. 1), see John M. Ward, Music for Elizabethan Lutes (London: Clarendon Press, 1992), pp. 75/fn207 and 301/fn314; and for Twenty waies upon the bels (no. 2), Go from my window (no. 14), Robin (no. 21), Lord Willobies welcome home (no. 25); and the Spanish pavan (no. 27), see the facsimile, The Folger ‘Dowland’ Manuscript (Guildford: The Lute Society, 2003), pp. xvii, xxv, xiii & xi. See also Claude M. Simpson, The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music (New Brunswick: Rutgers university, 1966), pp. 257-259, 467-471, 678-681. ↑

21. In the facsimile of the Mynshall lute book (Leeds: Boethius Press, 1975), item 20 of the inventory, Robert Spencer suggested this is similar in style to the preceding piece which is concordant with Robinson’s May in Dd.9.33, f. 92r and hence may be by Robinson. ↑

22. C. M. Clode, The Early History of the Guild of Merchant Taylors (1888), p. 280, quoted by John M. Ward (1978), op. cit., refers to rewards to musicians playing at a Merchant Taylors banquet in honour of James I, Queen Anne and Henry, Prince of Wales on 16 July 1609, ‘To them that plaied on the Lute’, including Thomas Robinson, John Donne, George Roselor, Tho. Sturgeon, Willm Ffregosie, Nicolas Sturt for himself and his sonne [was this John Sturt?, see tablature supplement in Lute News 53, April 2000], William Browne, Joseph Shirly, William Morley and Robert Kenn[er]sly. ↑

23. Diana Poulton, ‘Robinson, Thomas’, New Grove xvi, pp. 76-7 and New Grove II on-line; Matthew Spring, The Lute in Britain: A History of the instrument and its music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 219-20; Douglas Alton-Smith, A History of the Lute from Antiquity to the Renaissance (The Lute Society of America, 2002), pp. 268-70. ↑

24. The 1999 Whitbread Award-winning Music and Silence by Rose Tremain (Chatto & Windus, 1999) is a fascinating and well researched historical novel about the fictitious English lutenist Peter Claire set in the court of Christian IV of Denmark. ↑

25. Dedication in The Schoole of Musicke in 1603: ‘TO THE RIGHT VER-/TVOVS, HIGH, AND MIGHTIE / PRINCE KING IAMES, OVR DRED / SOVERAIGNE, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, KING / of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, defender of the / Faith, &c. long life, happie daies, and / most prosperous raigne. / As there is not anything in this world more / acceptable vnto GOD, (most gracious / Soueraigne) then a contrite heart: so I / presume that there is not any thing in this / world (next to the loue of God) more ac-/ceptable vnto your Majestie, then a true / and loyall subject. Thus vsing this perswa-/sion, for a sure argument of your Majesties / gracious acceptance, I presume to mani-/fest my selfe, a most true and loyall sub-/ject vnto your Majestie. In token where/of, I have gathered the chiefe of my treasurie, the which in most humble and / obedient manner, I present vnto your Highnesse: beseeching your High-/nesse not to mislike your subject, for the subject, sith it is for the good of all / your Majesties louing subjects. The Art is deuine, the Instrument laudable, / my Meaning good, my Skill drownde in the depth of Catoes wordes (who / saith) Nec te collaudes, nec te culpaueris ipse. And yet I can say for my selfe, that / once I was thought (In Denmark at Elsanure [Elsinore?]) the fittest to instruct your Ma-/jesties Queene, our most gracious Ladie and Mistres. / Thus prostrating my selfe at your Majesties feet, incessantlie crauing / pardon for my bold attempt, I rest. Restles in praier, for your Graces wel-/fare, both now and euer. / Your majesties / most loyall and / obedient subjest, / Thomas Robinson.’ Two other English lutenists were employed at the Danish court but at later dates: John Dowland from 1598 and Thomas Cutting from 1607/8, see ‘Cutting, Thomas’ (1583-1614) and ‘Dowland, John’ (1563-1626), A. Ashbee, D. Lasocki, P. Holman and F. Kisby, A Biographical Dictionary of English Court Musicians 1485-1714 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), vol. i, pp. 327-329 and 354-357. ↑

26. Robert Reynolds was the most celebrated of the comic actors associated with theatre groups who travelled throughout Europe from 1616 until he died in Warsaw in 1642, see Chambers, E. K., The Elizabethan Stage, 4 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923/R1951) ii, 270-294; Limon, J., Gentlemen of a Company: English Players in Central and Eastern Europe, 1590-1660 (Cambridge: CUP, 1985) p. 105, etc.; and tablature supplement to Lute News 51 (September 1999). ↑

27. Dedication in New Cytharen Lessons in 1609: ‘TO THE RIGHT HO-/NOVRABLE, SIR WILLIAM CECIL,/ Vicount Cranborne [1591-1668], Sonne and Heire / to the Right Honourable the Earle of / SALISBVRIE [Robert Cecil (1563?-1612), second son of William Cecil, Lord Burghley (1520-1598)], and Knight of the Ho-/nourable order of the Bathe, Thomas Robinson / wisheth all happinesse, with the / increase of all true Honour / and Vertue. / WAlking in my Garden of / good will (Right Honou-/rable,) I could find no bet-/ter Flowers, then those that / spring from faithful Loue, / bound with the bond of / dutie, to make my labours / gracious in your thoughts. / Loue to your Honour,/ sprung from the roote of your Lord [i.e. William Cecil, Viscount Cranbourne] and Grandfa-/thers [i.e. William Cecil, Lord Burghley] bountifull and most Honourable kindnesse to-/wards my Father, who was (vntill his dying day) / his true and obedient Seruant. Duetie bindeth me, / for that I was my selfe sometimes Seruant vnto the / Right Honourable, THOMAS Earle of Exceter,/ your Honours vncle [Thomas Cecil (1542-1623), first son of William Cecil, Lord Burghley], and alwaies haue tasted of the / comfortable liberalitie, of your Honours Father;/ for whose sake (next vnder God) I craue your Ho-/nours Pardon, for this my bold attempt. Thus bree-/ding (Right Honourable) as it were a protection / from your Pardon: I most humbly leaue you / to the Lord, and betake my selfe to my / Prayers for your Honours health / and prosperitie in all con-/digne dignitie. / Your Honours to commaund / in all dutie. / Thomas Robinson..’ ‘To the Reader [in New Cytharen Lessons in 1609]. / GEntlemen, blame me not although I haue / beene so long cracking of this nutte, sith at / last I haue giuen you the sweetest Cornell of / my conceited Cithering. For first, you shall haue strange lessons with strange tunings for the foure / stringed Citharen, the like neuer found out before for sweet/nes and goodnes to play (euen an organe kind of play) a-/lone, also lessons for two to play together, & withall a third / Citharen [there is no music for three citterns?]; (which inuention was first begun by an Italian / in Italy, but altered, and strings augmented by me.) Con-/taining fourteene course of strings : most full, sweete and / easie, for the which Citharen, I must remaine a thankeful / debter, and wellwiller to a most kind and louing Gentle-/man and scoller of mine, Master Edward Winne, / an attendant of the right Honourable ROBERT Earle / of Salisburie [Robert Cecil (1563?-1612)], now Lord high Treasurer of England. / Thus not forgetting my selfe, in remembring my friend, / I most louingly bid you all Adue. / Your musicall friend / Thomas Robinson.’ Robert Cecil’s interest in the cittern is recorded in state correspondence in 1561, see DC Price, Patrons and Musicians of the English Renaissance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), p. 176. ↑